Using a Marketing Faculty Blog as an Image Differentiator and Learning Resource to Enhance MBA Student Engagement and Loyalty

Universities should strive to emotionally connect with their current students, alumni, and the business community. As learning has morphed into e-learning, higher education marketers must turn to new online approaches to communicate effectively with key stakeholders. A blog can be used to share the latest thinking in marketing, respond to changing customer demands, build brand awareness, and maximize opportunities for user involvement. Using web metrics and strategic insights, the authors demonstrate how a blog can be a powerful digital tool to enhance MBA student involvement and retention. Keywords: Blogging, teaching innovation, integrated marketing communications (IMC), student engagement, value creation, MBA program

Using a Marketing Faculty Blog as an Image Differentiator and Learning Resource to Enhance MBA Student Engagement and Loyalty

Universities should strive to emotionally connect with their current students, alumni, and the business community. As learning has morphed into e-learning, higher education marketers must turn to new online approaches to communicate effectively with key stakeholders. A blog can be used to share the latest thinking in marketing, respond to changing customer demands, build brand awareness, and maximize opportunities for user involvement. Using web metrics and strategic insights, the authors demonstrate how a blog can be a powerful digital tool to enhance MBA student involvement and retention

Case Study - How a Business School Blog Can Build Stakeholder Relationships and Create Added Value in an MBA Marketing Program

Innovation, market orientation, and creative collaboration allow the smartest – not necessarily the biggest – organizations to win in the marketplace. This approach to competitive strategy is applicable in a wide variety of market contexts including business, information, and professional services. In this case study, we explain how one business school delivered enhanced value for its two primary target markets – MBA students and the business community. This was accomplished by designing a strategic communication tool (a faculty blog) to gain a competitive edge in the crowded graduate business education market in South Florida. We clearly demonstrate that organizations can create and add value by activating and implementing corporate entrepreneurial processes, programs, and activities as part of their strategic and competitive marketing efforts. This can be in the form of customer relationship management-oriented blogs or other initiatives. Engaging current and prospective customers and stakeholders is extremely important to success in today’s service-driven competitive educational marketplace and marketspace

How Libraries Can Enhance Customer Service by Implementing a Customer Value Mindset

Libraries have a rich tradition of solid customer service. Good service today, however, is often not good enough. Libraries can improve the customer experience by understanding what it means to truly deliver outstanding value. Implementing customer-centric marketing and the latest technology can increase the perceived value of library usage before, during, and after service delivery. The evolving library experience framework explains how library administrators can prepare for current challenges and future changes to enhance customer service. A customer value-based services perspective will help libraries strengthen overall user experiences to keep a larger “share of customer” from formidable information rivals such as search engines, online databases, news sources, video sharing sites, internet service providers, and content creators

The Andy Goldsworthy Project

This is the most substantial scholarly volume devoted to Andy Goldsworthy's work in twenty years and the first to underscore the permanent oeuvre of the artist. The book traces the development of Goldsworthy's project at the National Gallery of Art from conception to completion and situates the artist's sculpture and practice within an age-long tradition of structures. It features the only fully illustrated catalogue documenting Goldsworthy's commissioned installations- more than 120 works dating from 1984 to 2008 and spanning three continents. Combining thorough documentation, in-depth analysis, and contextual scholarship within a visually rich format, this book is a landmark publication on the artist

Tutubi: A remote controlled insect robot used for surveillance with graphical user interface

The word ornithopter comes from the combination of two Greek words for bird and wing. It is a device that imitates the flapping-wing flight found in nature. It can fly by producing enough lift through its wings flapping motion. Imagine installing a wireless camera in this ornihopters, it will result into a device that can survey an area from a remote location using a device that mimics the flight pattern of natural fliers like insects and bird. The paper is all about the construction of a robot that is capable of flying through flapping wings. The said prototype will be equipped with a wireless camera so that it can be a tool that let its user survey an area from a remote location. It can be remotely controlled through a personal computer (PC) or through a laptop by utilizing its graphical user interface

Effect of intensive exercise on plasmatic neutrophil elastase level in eventing and endurance horses

Reasons for performing the study – Intensive exercise induces a systemic inflammatory response characterized by an increase of blood neutrophil count and myeloperoxidase (MPO) release. Neutrophil elastase (NE) could also contribute to tissues lesions by their proteinase activities. Objective – To compare plasmatic NE concentrations before and after different forms of intensive exercise. Materials and Methods – EDTA blood samples were taken from 51 eventing horses (EvH) and 32 endurance horses (EndH) were sampled before the race (T0). Blood sampling was performed 2 h (T1) after completing either phase D of a one or two star eventing competition (n=51) or a 120 or 160 km endurance race (n=32). Plasmatic NE and MPO were measured by a specific equine ELISA. Neutrophil counts and creatine kinase (CK) levels were also measured. A Wilcoxon test for paired samples was used to compare mean values of neutrophils, CK, MPO and NE at T0 and T1 in EvH and in EndH. Correlations were calculated between all the 4 parameters in EvH and EndH. Results – At T0, mean NE levels were 14.43 ± 3.63 ng/ml for EvH and 11.7 ± 2.11 ng/ml for EndH. The competition induced a significant increase of NE levels in (58.57 ± 24.06 ng/mL) EvH and (95.74 ± 22.70 ng/mL) EndH (p < 0,05). NE was significantly (p < 0,0001) correlated to MPO in EvH (r = 0.293) and EndH (0.594) and to CK (r = 0.297) in EndH (p<0.0001). Neutrophils, CK and MPO were significantly increased between T0 and T1 in both types of horses. Conclusions – Significant increase of NE was observed after intense exercise with a significant correlation between NE and MPO. The huge variability in MPO and ELT, indicates, that not all horses show the same intensity of systemic inflammatory response